


Carriers | Part Two

by Wichi



Series: Carriers [2]
Category: Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2
Genre: F/M, Female Protagonist, Gen, M/M, Survival, Survival Horror, Survivors, The Last of Us - Freeform, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies, russian protagonist, the walking dead - Freeform, zombie survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-27
Packaged: 2018-04-17 11:37:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4665084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wichi/pseuds/Wichi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The virus that began at Mercy Hospital has engulfed the entire country. The government, the military, the entire population has been seemingly wiped out. For the few still alive, the struggle has barely just begun. They must fight for food, shelter, survival. One hard truth bands a few survivors together in a desperate bid to live.</p>
<p>Not all the infected were sick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carriers | Part Two

 

**The Convenience Store**

 

It was still there.

            The searing pain and tightness in her chest was excruciating. Audri willed her eyes to open but they wouldn’t. Was this some sort of hell? Was she going to be forced to relive her death forever? She couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. Her body convulsed as she gasped for air.                        

            She could have sworn she heard voices. Maybe other damned souls enjoying her untimely death. The pain was too much. She felt the infected press against her side and she tried weakly to push it away as her body violently convulsed. There was shouting now, definite shouting. She couldn’t make out what. Damn them. Let her die again in peace.

A sharp pain pierced her arm, and her body went numb in terror.

_Dear god, they’re eating me_

Before she could even process that fear, the world seemed to simply dissolve into oblivion once more.

 

            Audri’s eyes snapped open as she gasped for air. Her chest was still horribly constricted, but that _thing_ was no longer there. She looked down in horror. An Egyptian mummy had nothing on her. Bandages circled around her entire chest up to her bra. The black cotton shirt was gone. Only the sad, bloody remains of her track jacket still clung to her arms.

            Strangled gasps of fear and pain escaped from her throat as her shaking hands pulled at the bandages to no avail. She let her head fall back in shock, still struggling for air and some sort of control. Focus. Breathe. Where was she? The room was full of food, but otherwise bare. She was lying on some sort of soft material. Maybe a sleeping bag.

            Audri coughed and leaned over as she spit out a gob of blood before falling back, exhausted. She looked to her right and spotted a plastic cup full of water. She had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. Gathering all the control she could muster, she reached out to grab the glass. Like a baby trying to master motor skills, she succeeded only in knocking it away, spilling its precious contents onto the concrete.

            Tears of pain and frustration slid down her face. What the hell was this, anyway? Even the afterlife was going to be a bitch to her? Another coughing fit wracked her body, sending waves of searing pain through her ribs.

            “She’s awake!” Audri turned her head in astonishment as Vasily knelt down beside her. He looked surprisingly better than he had when they met those few short hours ago. For being dead that was. “How are you feeling?”

            “Like shit.”

He laughed slightly, checking the bandages.

            “You are lucky to be alive.”

She only groaned, running a shaking hand over her face.

            “How do you figure?”

He laughed again.

            “We saved you just in time.”

This was not processing in the slightest.

            “From _what?”_

            Vasily sighed as he sat on the concrete next to her. “What attacked you, in Russia, we call ‘Hunter.’ These Hunters are smart, rip you open first so you can’t fight back. There is no escape without help.”

She shook her head, not amused.

            “So you put me on display…like some shark attack victim.”

            All of a sudden fear, horrible, blinding, penetrating, immobilizing fear gripped her very existence as she slowly tilted her head to stare at the bandages. An infected had attacked her, scratched her almost to death.

She was infected.

           “You dumb bastard!” She howled, thrashing away from him as he recoiled in fear. “Why did you—I’m gonna—I’m gonna—!”

           He tried frantically to calm her down. “Audri, vhat is it?!” She was drowning, suffocating in her own fear and revulsion. “I’m infected…” she whispered, “I’m infected…oh god why…”

            Vasily cautiously wrapped his hand around her arm and she ripped it away. Suddenly she was back. Calculating, logical, present. “I can’t be one of them.” Vasily shook his head. “Audri, you are mistaken.” He didn’t understand.

“I _won’t_ be one of them.” He watched in confusion as her face broke and tears slid down her face. “Audri,  you are not infected!” She felt down her leg, and sure enough, the pistol was still there. “I will NOT BE ONE OF _THEM!”_

            “NO!” he roared as she brought the pistol to her temple before he could stop her. Just as her finger pulled on the trigger some unknown force ripped her arm upward, sending the shot high into the ceiling. She howled in pain as the bandages strained to stretch with her and she crashed back to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

            “Are you outta your _mind?!”_ This voice couldn’t be more American if it tried. It was low, gravelly, and full of anger. Audri looked up at the livid man holding her smoking pistol.

            He was heavier, aged somewhere between 55 and 60. Dark brown eyes seared in his pale face surrounded by black hair. He was dressed in the police uniform of a D.C. beat cop, and from the looks of it, had been wearing the thing for a while.

            “I’m infected, you ass-hat! Give me the goddamn gun!” He let out a humorless laugh and shoved the gun into the jacket of his uniform “No way, sweetheart. Not until you decide to be a good girl and listen.” White-hot anger licked her insides at the thought of being talked-down to.

            “You know what, that’s fine.” She muttered matter-of-factly, turning her head as she fumbled with the holster on her left leg. “I’vegot another one.”

            Vasily threw himself on top of her before she could even move, pinning her arm and wrestling the pistol away from her. “Get off me you commie _bastard!”_ she howled as he sat up and tossed the other gun to the cop.

            “Are you two _insane?!_ I was attacked like _two hours ago!_ Meaning I could turn any _god damn minute!”_ Vasily and the cop exchanged significant glances and the cop reluctantly kneeled next to her. “Look, kid. You were attacked alright, but that was over two _days_ ago.”

            There was a thick, excruciating silence.

            “Excuse me?”

He nodded in agreement. “It was around noon two days ago. You did wake up yesterday morning and scare us to death. We thought you were having a seizure.” Vasily shook his head, remembering with obvious distaste. “We thought you were dying.” The cop glared at her. “And we gave you the last of the morphine, thinking at least then you wouldn’t suffer. But we kept checking all goddamn night, and you kept right on breathing.”

             She leaned over and spit out another gob of blood. “Sorry to disappoint you.” The cop shook his head and threw a look at Sil. “You weren’t kidding. She’s delightful.”

Audri reached over for a bottle of water, unscrewing the cap and downing half of it in one breath. “Why the _hell_ haven’t I turned?”

            Vasily sighed as he lifted the bottom of his shirt. It revealed some pretty cut abs and a scar from a familiar circular wound. “I was bitten one week after first infection in Russia. It healed, and I never got sick.” The cop rolled up the sleeve of his left arm and the florescent light shone on another healed wound. “I got that two weeks ago. Never felt better.”

            Audri could hardly believe it. “I’ve always had the worst luck out of anyone I know. Suddenly a world-ending disease hits, and I’m immune to it.” She laughed hollowly. “Wow my life’s messed up.” The cop couldn’t hold back a tight smile. “I’m John by the way, John Sudduth.”

            “And I’m leaving.” She groaned as she tried to climb to her feet. She felt a horrible draining sensation and the world began to swim around her. John grabbed her easily. “You’re not ready for a marathon just yet, so siddown and stay there.” She really couldn’t argue.

            “This still doesn’t explain where I got the blood. Most of it is on the walls still” Vasily shuddered as John laughed. “Sil here got the honors. That’s what he gets for having the blood type of a universal donor. Gerry rigged the IV myself.” Audri looked down at her bandages and shook her head. “Christ, I hope you did it right. Though it would be my luck to be immune to the god damn zombies only to die of some blood born disease.” Neither one were amused.

            “You know, isn’t ‘Audri’ a name they give to somebody innocent? Like a nurse? Or a cheerleader?” Audri spat out another gob of blood near his shoe. “Isn’t ‘John’ a name they give to a dead body nobody claims?” He let out another humorless laugh and stormed out the room, slamming the thick door behind him. Vasily shook his head in wonder.

            “What are chances I get stuck with people more likely to kill each other than infected.”

 

_Take it easy, my ass._

 Audri winced as she climbed the service ladder to the roof. Whoever had owned the Save 4 Less before the world went to hell had been paranoid long before that. Guns and ammo of all shapes and sizes were discovered in the former owner’s office. Vasily had lovingly claimed a Kalashnikov. John and Audri had fought over a long, gleaming, beautiful tactical shotgun. Seeing how the gun was more than half the length of Audri’s body, John had won. He did redeem himself slightly when he found her a combat shotgun; a deadly-looking Franchi SPAS-12, which she fell in love with immediately. She could hunt _dinosaurs_ with that bad boy. Out of the blades the owner had lined up, she had traded in her golf club for a god damn katana. It had a shoulder strap for the sheath and it was _beautiful._

            Audri cautiously opened the roof access panel and lowered it silently to the gravelly surface. She tossed her sniper rifle topside and gingerly climbed up. She smiled at the sight of the ladder leading up to the Save 4 Less sign, which had a good four-foot space in between the north and south facing panels. Perfect.

            She slowly lowered herself onto the sign’s grating, facing west, which felt delicious on her bandages. But, lying down offered the least chance of being seen.

            Audri smiled, back in her element as she peered through the scope and set the crosshairs on a delivery man. _BANG!_ The delivery man was thrown off his feet as the shot caught him in the neck. Damn, she had been aiming for his head.

            She quickly lined up another shot. Some lady dressed way too young for her age. “Knock knock, fashion police.” _BANG!_ The tasteless lady collapsed, only a bloody stump remained where her head had been. “Alright,” Audri grinned, “now I’m back.”

            “What the _hell_ is your _problem?!”_ Audri threw a half-assed glance toward John as he pulled himself onto the roof. “Practicing.” She muttered as her crosshairs found a police officer. “Ooh, John, nine o’clock. Friend of yours?” He whipped around as the rifle roared again, taking the cop’s head clean off. It was such a decent shot that the body remained where it was for a few brief moments before dropping like a rag doll.

            “Would you knock it _off!?_ Every freak in town is going to hear you making an ass of yourself up there!” She ignored him, swinging the rifle again. “Ooh, ‘nother cop.” _BANG!_ The second officer also hit the ground in a hail of blood. She laughed as John proceeded to storm the sign’s platform.

            “I hope that grating is tearing your bandages to shit.” She tilted the gun and found some poor homeless guy. “Don’t worry. It is.” _BANG!_ Another beautiful head shot. “You might be a giant pain in my ass, but you’re a hell of a shot.” She grinned as she lined up another. “Well don’t let me have all the fun. I assume you brought that hunting scope for a reason.” She imagined the look of distaste he gave her at being called out.

            “Lookit you,” She declared, finding an infected standing on top of a car, “like you’re cool or something.” _BANG!_ The target was thrown clear from the car as the bullet caught it high in the chest. “You should see this guy,” John smirked behind her, “god I hate hippies.” _CRACK!_ The hunting rifle was higher pitched than the AR-15, but the none the less effective.

            “Didja get it?” Judging from the stony silence, she guessed not. “Why did you pick this place anyway?” He grumbled as she found a man who seemed to be going for a ‘Jersey Shore’ look. “Why did _you_ decide to take in strays?” _BANG! CRACK!_ “You know, you can leave any time, you little brat.” She smirked as she lined up another worthy victim. “And you can still get help, John. The first step is admitting you have a problem.” _CRACK!_ The bullet ricocheted off the edge of the roof, grabbing an infected’s attention. Audri immediately assumed a commentator voice.

            “Oh-ho we got a live one here, John, on this beautiful D.C. morning,” The infected made a beeline for the roof, opting for a nearby van for access, “It seems he’s set his sights high on a beautiful Ford Econoline, but will he pull it off?” She felt John stand over her. “Can’t you be serious for once in your goddamn life?” She was barely listening as the infected tore toward the van. “He runs…” She lined up the shot, “He leaps…”

_BANG!_

            The infected’s head was torn clean off just as it jumped and cleared the rooftop. “Oh and he is stopped dead _just_ short of the target area. Looks like this one is going home _disappointed_.”

She looked up and found John’s livid face a hilarious shade of purple. “Do you think you could go five minutes without insulting me?”

            “I don’t know—“ her face broke with laughter, “do you think you can go five minutes without pulling some poor soul off the street?” She recoiled as she laughed, hoping like hell he would fight the urge to kick her as she slowly got up. 

            “We saved your goddamn life,” he thundered, “you’d think you’d be just a little goddamn grateful.” She reloaded the rifle indifferently. “I will never understand why you saved me.” His face softened slightly, but not much. “You were a young kid bleeding to death on the floor, what is there to understand?!”

            She glared at him as she leaned the rifle over her shoulder. “I wouldn’t have saved me.” With that she climbed down, leaving him to decipher those cold words alone.

 

            Vasily’s concern was driving Audri up the wall. Every time she turned around he was there. Was she alright. Did her bandages need changed. Did she eat something today. Enough was enough. She figured she had tortured John and Sil within reason for their stupidity, and it was time to move on.

            Audri sat in the shade of a large air conditioner on the convenience store roof. The sun had never been kind to her colorless skin, and she was in no mood to test that relationship further. She sighed as she debated where to go from there. Both John and Vasily had been deeply asleep when she rose that morning, but even their unconscious bodies were company too much.

            She could barely make out the blue band of the Potomac River in the distance. Maybe she could steal a boat, anchor it somewhere in the middle. Make a shore run every once in a while for supplies. She doubted these infected, who had a hard enough time just trying to walk, could swim up and get her. The boat wasn’t an issue either; she had grown up on boats. And ones that had been held together with little more than spit and chewing gum at that.

            It was a plan, if nothing else. A goal she could focus on other than live for another day. She would take what food, water, and ammo she needed and set out. Probably make it by noon if she was cautious.

            “You look like Doug from The Hangover,” a gravelly voice interrupted, “lying around up here.” She didn’t look up as he towered next to her. “What are you looking at?” She continued to stare at the Potomac. “My next move.” He gazed over the horizon with annoyance.

            “What do you mean, you’re next move?” She spun a pistol in her hand indifferently. “Where I’m gonna go from here.” With that she stood up and made to walk past him, but John planted himself firmly in her way. “You mean you’re just gonna _leave?”_ She glared at him impatiently. “Yes, John, I’m leaving. Today.”

             With that, she pushed past him, climbing down the ladder to the store’s interior with the cop hot on her heels. “Are you _insane?!_ You can’t go off by yourself!” She ignored him as she ripped open a backpack and began stuffing it with food and water bottles. “Watch me.” She hissed as she kicked open the door to the office and began stuffing the backpack with ammo as well.

             “What is going on?” Vasily appeared behind John, his face a mask of concern. “Audri thinks she’s leaving.” The pilot let out a stream of Russian curses and threw his hands up in exasperation before storming away. Audri packed a third of the ammo and slung the pack over her shoulder. “I guess I’ll let myself out. You two have a nice life.” John’s arm shot out, blocking her way.

             “Look what happened last time you tried to be superman.” She ducked under his arm and made her way to the store’s front entrance. “Audri, goddammit, we are ALL THAT’S LEFT!” She turned, amused by his sudden outburst.

             “Then by all means, John, make a new life for yourself here in this podunk store. Claim all of Washington D.C. and name it ‘Johnland’ for all I care. Don’t let me cramp your style.” She kicked the front door open and stormed out, but he was one determined man.

             “I wandered these streets for weeks, and you and the damn communist are the only people out there. We have to stick together!” She gave him a frustrated, skeptical glare.

            “You don’t want me here anymore than I want to _be_ here, why the _hell_ are you fighting me on this? If there’s one thing I’ve learned through this goddamn mess, it’s that people get you killed. So you know what, fine, _thank you_ for saving my life, but I’m not going to stay here and wait for that situation to happen again.”

             John was no longer listening. He stared over her shoulder with a mixture of anxiety and revulsion. Audri turned and found herself staring at an infected child.

            It had been a little girl at one point, and a dirty flowered sun dress clung to her bony ashen-skinned body. Its hair, once brown, clung to her head like string. Her eyes were the same weak blue as all the other infected, but they seemed to be wide in fear. Her torso seemed almost swollen, as if her ribs had somehow expanded.

            “Holy shit.” Audri hissed. “Don’t move.” John whispered and Audri threw him a skeptical look. “John, it’s a little kid, what the hell’s it gonna do?” She shook her head as she pulled the SPAS-12 from her back harness. All of a sudden the girl’s face broke.

            An unearthly, blood-curdling scream exploded from the child’s throat. It was so excruciatingly loud that Audri and John threw themselves back in fear. “Jesus _CHRIST!”_ Audri howled, tripping over her own feet into John’s chest. “SHOOT IT!” He bellowed as the child turned and ran, still screaming like a banshee. Audri raised the shotgun and pumped four rounds into the child’s back, effectively shutting it up as it hit the ground like a doll.

           “ _DAMN!”_ She hissed, pulling away from John, “That was some crazy shit!” John was still tensed, staring at the horizon. “This is gonna get bad…” Audri threw him another look and loaded the Franchi. “Why, it was a zombie. They wouldn’t care about another zombie making noise, right?”

            All of a sudden voices, infected voices, seemed to bellow in unison. It sounded like half the city. Audri pushed John back toward the store. “That’s our cue to leave, let’s go!” They tore inside and John threw a confused Sil toward the roof ladder. “Get up to the roof, now!” All three of them gathered every gun they could find.

            Sil climbed up the ladder like a damn monkey with John right on his tail. Audri ripped off the sad remains of her track jacket as John yelled down to her. “AUDRI, GET UP HERE!” She grabbed every liquor bottle she could find and climbed as fast as she could before the men grabbed her arms and practically threw her on the roof.

            They watched in horror as infected poured from every street, every building, every crack in every wall. “Get on the sign!” Audri shrieked and they scrambled into the four foot clearance of the billboard’s grating. Audri picked up an M16. Vasily hastily loaded an AK-47. John grabbed the tactical shotgun. It was impossibly loud, all of the moaning, the snarls. It was as if the city itself had grown a mouth and was lamenting its demise.

            They waited until the first infected appeared on the roof. Then the world erupted in a hailstorm of blood and firepower. “GET DOWN!” Sil thundered as John and Audri knelt down and he shot over them. “COVER ME!” Audri bellowed as she began ripping her track jacket and stuffing shreds into the bottles of liquor. “INCOMING!” John screamed as he threw a Molotov cocktail onto the oncoming horde. The east end of the roof was transformed into a howling, burning mass of bodies.

            Audri swung the assault rifle and fired into the onslaught of infected as Sil launched another Molotov into the parking lot. “I’VE GOT THIS END, COVER JOHN!” She bawled, knowing a shotgun needed more help than her fifty-round clip assault rifle. “RELOADING!” Sil howled as Audri fired another Molotov, this time on the roof.

            The infected made no effort to avoid the flames and continued to run into the fire toward them. They seemed to spawn out of thin air. Audri had never seen so many infected in one place. And so determined to kill. The noise was deafening. The guns roared over the sound of hundreds of snarling, screeching, howling infected.

            “I’M RELOADING!” Audri called as an infected attempted to climb the grating in front of her. She knocked it back with a vicious swing of the rifle and fired. There were too many, all focused on them. Suddenly she remembered the deadly item she had found the office not two hours ago. She stood to her full height, right arm cocked back as she triggered the pipe bomb. “FIRE IN THE HOLE!”

             The pipe bomb began to flash and beep as she launched it into the parking lot. Every infected turned and ran toward it with desire as it bounced off the pavement. “GET DOWN!” Sil ordered, shielding her with his body as they threw themselves onto the grating.

             The parking lot erupted in a burst of fire and blood. All three survivors cringed as a sick splattering sound came from the sign’s south-facing panel. A few infected who hadn’t made it to the blast radius began tearing toward the sign once again, but they were few in number and easily cut down.

             The silence was eerie. The world had gone to hell and back in a Matter of five minutes. The three unlikely victors slowly rose to their feet and gazed around with wonder. Audri shook her head as she made her way to the ladder. “If there was ever a time when I said liked kids,” she growled, aiming a vicious kick at a corpse and watching it drop to the roof with a thud, “I take it back.”

 

            Why didn’t anything ever have enough gas in it? Audri channeled her inner grandfather as she let out a torrent of obscenities, kicking the wheelhouse wall of the third boat she had attempted to start. The last boat had plenty of gas, but offered only the dry pop of a shot spark plug. She wasn’t about to tear the damn motor apart trying to find which one.

            She tossed another set of marina keys on the dock and consulted her stash for another. The 28 foot fishing trawler looked promising and she eagerly jumped over the ship’s railing, landing on the deck with a thud.

            The look on Sil and John’s faces when they realized she was gone was probably priceless, but she had stolen away from the store at the crack of dawn. Audri smiled as the trawler’s engine caught. Its gas-filled frame vibrated smoothly under her shoes. Who needed a cop and a communist anyway.

Audri kicked the wheelhouse door open, knowing she had to untie the lines to the dock and stopped dead.

            Over two hundred infected stared back at her, their eyes filled with violence. She let out a scream of horror as every single infected stormed the boat to kill her. She could feel them scratching, punching…kicking…biting…

            Audri shot up from her sleeping bag, gasping and drenched  in sweat cold as ice. She looked over at John, who was lying with his back to her, and Sil, who was sprawled on his stomach, his relaxed face toward hers. For a brief and terrifying moment she entertained the idea curling up next to him.

As if _he_ could protect her.

            Disgusted and shaking, she pulled herself unsteadily to her feet and made her way into the office. It was dark, sometime in the early morning, and the only light offered came from the battery operated lanterns they had stashed throughout the store. Audri supposed she should have been grateful they were so tacky no one had purchased them.

            She sat at the desk, pulling her SPAS close and relishing the cool deadly steel against her burning skin. The horde had come and gone two days ago. Her heart tried to hang onto the idea that two days was a long time. Her head reminded her that it totaled a measly 48 hours. And it was the second time in those 48 hours she had woken up from being hellishly murdered by hundreds of infected.

            It hurt her very core to admit it.

She wasn’t going to survive this world alone.

 

            Audri swore as her shirt caught on the low-lying counter again. The hunter had ruined her black cotton t-shirt. The track jacket had been used for Molotovs. She had spent the better part of that day in nothing but bandages that wrapped around her stomach and ribs and a bra. Then John had found a shitty band t-shirt in the owner’s office. Some southern hick rock group called the Midnight Riders. They all looked like they had never bathed. The shirt itself was three sizes too big.

            “What’s your problem now?”

She threw John a withering look as she tied the back of the shirt with a hair tie. “I’m wearing a tent. But hey, it’d probably fit you fine.” Vasily laughed as he passed the open doorway and added some sort of agreement in Russian. “You’re not helping!” John growled as Audri forced open her last water bottle.

            “There goes the rest of my stash.”

John’s face darkened. “I only have one left. Sil ran out this morning.” Audri took a small sip and sighed. “What a fun vacation this turned out to be.” John was lost in thought, staring out the freshly-barricaded door.

            “Audri, I’ve been thinking…there’s a supposed evac center on the roof of a nearby hotel.” Audri almost spit out the water in laughter. “John, I hate to break it to you, but I doubt they’re still evacuating people.” He gave her a look before continuing. “I know that. But it’ll probably have supplies, things we could use. Maybe even more guns and ammo.” She cocked her head in interest.

            “We don’t need guns and ammo, the horde barely made a dent in our armory. All we need is water, and that’s just a trip to the river and back. I agree that we can’t stay here, though. Anything living in miles is gonna think to raid this store.”

            He shook his head impatiently. “Audri, we need some medical supplies. Like bandages and penicillin.” She shrugged. “So we hit the river and a drug store. That’s hardly a suicide mission.”

            He turned to her, a strange look on his face. “Since when did you start saying ‘we?” She launched a flashlight at his head, forcing him to duck. “Since I found out any loud noise and an army of freaks come running.”

            He shook his head, glaring at the flashlight. “I’m serious. I think the evac center is our best bet.” Audri was not buying it.

            “Evac centers mean people. _Hotels_ mean people. We saw the other day what happens when they all turn around and realize it’s _you.”_  His face softened slightly. “You know we can’t stay here.” She shook her head and stared down at her shotgun. “John, there are worse things out there than hunters and little kids. We go into a populated place like a hotel…and we’re going to meet every damn one of them. I’m not saying we shouldn’t move on. I’m saying there are less impossible places to go.”

            “We have to try.” They both turned as Vasily strode into the room, towering over all of them, “I will not put my life in hands of billboard again.” John nodded in agreement. “Who knows, maybe the evac center will give us some idea where everyone is.” Audri shook her head in disbelief. “We _know_ where everyone is, John. Out there. Waiting to kill us.”

            An uneasy silence fell between the three of them. John and Audri watched as Sil picked up an axe from what once had been a glass ‘fire emergency’ box. “We will go. We use these weapons instead of guns. If we can make it to hotel we can sneak through service entrance and make way to roof. If everyone stick together, work as team, infected bastards can’t stop us.”

            Sil’s determined face and John’s look of triumph both turned expectantly toward her. Audri growled as she grabbed her newfound samurai sword and stormed out.

            “Bastards.”


End file.
